Preparing for the holiday breach season

The weather may be warm now but retailers are already planning for the 2015 holiday season, when businesses will conduct as much as 20% of their total annual sales.

Unfortunately, cyber criminals are also gearing up for the holiday rush, as they know that the IT team is often too busy keeping Point of Sale systems and servers running smoothly to be on the lookout for signs of attack. They also know that many organizations enter a "code freeze" period, when no new security patches are introduced lest they disrupt transaction speed. What's more, according to our recent survey, nearly 20% of businesses actually turn off antivirus during rush periods to avoid slowdowns.

Intensifying the pressure this holiday season are a number of distractions:

· The October deadline to migrate to EMV-enabled technology or face increased liability

· PCI DSS 11.3 (penetration testing methodology) is now a requirement instead of a “best practice”

· More POS systems than ever before now rely on end-of-life systems, including Windows XP and Windows Server 2003

During the high-volume, highly-critical holiday period retailers can't afford to let down their guard. Attend our webinar, featuring Chris Strand, PCIP, and an industry expert from Coalfire, to learn about the potential cyber threats facing your organization this holiday season and what you can do about it.

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SC Media arms cybersecurity professionals with the in-depth, unbiased business and technical information they need to tackle the countless security challenges they face and establish risk management and compliance postures that underpin overall business strategies.